A personal exploration into historical and current forms of philosophy, always with an eye towards understanding the why of life.

02 July 2009

Thoughts on Fichte

Fichte is known for stating that the "I is aware of itself as making itself self-aware" (part of his Wissenschaftslehre).

And of course across the decades people have wondered what the hell he has meant? Was it some precursor to Sartre's "man creates himself" or Nietzsche's "Superman"?

In my take, we are only really aware of our selves, our own being, when we are self-aware, when we understand our actions reflect back upon ourselves and generate the consequences. Something goes from the objective to the subjective and only then can it influence the I (Ichheit).

To clarify a bit, if the objective says that stars exist, and the subjective believes that stars exist, then the I must accept both of these statements for the I to believe that stars exist.

Basically the I must be aware of itself, and as such it then aware of things other than the I. If the other things do not reflect what the I is aware of, then they do not exist.

Where the hell am I going with this? Unless we are fully aware of the things that we do, and accept that what happens following are a direct reflection of ourselves and our understanding of ourselves, then we will never really believe that whatever happens is a consequence of our actions. What happens to each of us is directly because of what we do to create it.